D&D 5E Spells cast at higher level spell slots. Worth it?

[Warmaster Horus]

I've got an MC character who's highest spell slot is higher than his greatest castable spell level. As such he usually burns it to cast Aid as that is a great spell at higher levels.

 

[cbwjm]

Some reasons it is a save rather than an attack roll were already mentioned, but there is one other to consider: it's designed such so that it doesn't score critical hits.

So make sure before altering it that you want the results that you are getting (plate mail protecting against it better than leather rather than both being irrelevant, and a 5% chance of 20d6 +40 damage for a 6th level spell slot), rather than the one you thought of (ray = spell attack).

I hadn't thought about crits, however, I think I'm actually fine with that.

 

[Croesus]

If the giant hits you for one meeeelion points of damage and you have no 1st level slots, a 3rd level slot casting of shield is definitely worth it.

If the evil mage keeps counterspelling your spell, casting it with a 5th level slot might be worth it, even if the spell itself gets no benefit from higher levels.

Casting hold monster with a 7th level slot will (maybe) get the rakshasa, since it is immune to magic of level 6 or lower.

Yep, one player in my group has learned that upcasting counterspell is very useful, as he's blown a couple ability checks against higher level spells. It's only fair to put the evil mage in the same position...

Upcasting bless can be very useful, so one can give the bonus to everyone in the party.

Lastly, I tend to use upcasting a lot with NPCs. Better to hit the party with the toughest option early, as the NPCs may not survive long enough to cast many spells.

 

[Horwath]

Single target buffs/debuffs that gain +1 target per spell slot level are usually worth it.

Damage spells suck at scaling.

They should be +3 dice per spell level for single target spells and +2 dice for AoE.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I wouldn't describe wanting to avoid collateral damage as "extremely situational", personally, but that's just a nitpick.

If you are playing a game where collateral damage is a serious concern, perhaps because you spend a lot of time in town and/or near innocent civilians, then that explains why you might consider the smaller area of Burning Hands to be situationally useful. If you're in a dungeon where the walls are made of stone, or outdoors where there's plenty of open space, there's virtually zero merit to having such a small area of effect.

Even if there were literally no reason whatsoever to cast burning hands at 3rd level when you've prepared fireball, that wouldn't be a problem. It would mean you've prepped/learned both spells and made a conscious decision to go all-in on optimizing damage at every spell slot. Prepping just burning hands would mean you're willing to sacrifice some high-end damage but are planning on possibly doing something else with that 3rd-level spell slot. Prepping just fireball would mean you want the high-end damage and are planning on possibly doing something else with your 1st- and 2nd-level slots. All of these are interesting choices.

This hinges on the existence of a situation where you would want to cast Burning Hands, even though you are high enough in level that you can cast Fireball, and that's not a situation which is likely to occur under the normal assumptions of gameplay.

If you're fighting monsters that are so weak that 3d6 damage from Burning Hands would be a meaningful contribution, then that's an encounter which is so easy that you shouldn't even need to expend resources on it. From level 6 and onward, a Firebolt cantrip averages more damage than a Burning Hands I spell.

 

[mellored]

What other people said.

It's great for some spells (multi-target spells like command, hold), not great for others (mostly damage spells), and situationally useful for others (shield).

 

[DaveDash]

Heh I had one player cast Hold Person on a NPC and the other walked up to it and cast a 7th level Scorching Ray.

36d6 damage later...

But mostly I see it used for spells like hold person, banishment, and healing spells.


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[ThePolarBear]

Does anyone else think it would be more interesting to have variable bonuses on level up? For instance, casting a fireball might have these options:

For each spell slot level higher than 3rd you can choose one of the following: increase damage by +1d6, increase the radius by 5 feet, or increase the range by 30 feet.

I was wondering about this a couple of days ago, expecially when tied to spells that at the moment do not scale. Gives a bit of flexibility without replacing higher level spells.
I need more time however to see if it's something that needs to be developed further.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Bear in mind that comparing the damage of an up-cast burning hands spell against a fireball when discussing up-casting in general is a rather skewed comparison. "Iconic" spells like Fireball and Lightning bolt were specifically given higher damage than a normal spell of that level would have.

I've used upcasting a fair amount, generally because I didn't always have the exact right ideal spell, but had a pretty good lower-level spell, and a higher-level slot available.

 

[CydKnight]

I've seen the rare occurrence where there were no lower spell slots available and a spell had to be cast at a higher level or not at all.